He Will Show You A Way Out

If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure. 1 Corinthians 10:12-13

TO ENCOURAGE the people in the Corinthian church to turn away from idolatry, Paul told them to consider how the Israelites’ worship of false gods had brought them only ruin and destruction. “These things happened to them as examples for us,” Paul writes in verse 11.

When we read about the Israelites worshiping a golden calf or the Corinthians participating in pagan worship by visiting temple prostitutes, we’re tempted to think that their acts are far removed from our modern life. But idolatry is very much a part of our modern life. Because it’s in the air we breathe, we can’t really see it.

What is idolatry? Idols are not necessarily bad things. They are often good things that have become ultimate things. They are legitimate desires that have morphed into destructive demands. We take a good thing —like providing for our family —and turn it into an ultimate thing, infused with ambition and greed. We take something important —like parenting —and make it into an ultimate endeavor as we allow our identity to be defined by our child’s success or failure.

Our God meets us at the level of desire. He understands our weaknesses and our need for a way out of the grip of idolatry. And that’s what he provides to us. As we look squarely at the inability of our idols to ever fully satisfy us, and as we look humbly at the willingness of Christ to take upon himself all the judgment for our idolatry, we find an opening for grace. He provides the way out of what once seemed like unendurable temptation to keep on looking for our significance, security, and satisfaction in something other than Christ.

Lord, we love ________, but we don’t want to make an idol out of our child. We are desperate for your help to order our loves so that our desires don’t become demands. To get rid of our idols, we need your help in identifying them. Won’t you use whatever means you see fit to reveal to us what we have come to love and depend on more than you?